Wanted to discuss the USB drive audio functionality. I know it was touched on in the thread in the main category, but this seemed like an appropriate place.

I am still trying to get my USB drive organized so it's easy to access the music in the LEAF. Since the LEAF doesn't have any sort of sorting options for the music, it makes it tough to find the music you want to listen to. If you just want to shuffle all your music it works great, but to find something specific is difficult.

I have been trying to use some of the MP3 organizing software to move the songs around into folders which are more clearly labeled (the LEAF will just display the folder in which the music is in (usually the album name folder)). My issue is that sometimes there are random artists in my list. I found that they are usually from compilation cd's. I did set in itunes that compilation setting, but the MP3 programs seem to be having some trouble getting the music organized without having all these 'orphan' artist folders.

I am thinking about just copying the music manually. But I'm afraid that it might take a long time to make all the new folders. My thought is to have folders that are "Artist - Album name". That way I can sort by artist (which I think is the way that I most often search by).

Just curious if anyone had any tips about getting our music better organized for the LEAF. I've asked Nissan to improve the USB drive functionality, but I have no idea if they will do that, or offer that improved software to us with 2011 LEAF's.

If I decide to use USB sticks with Leaf - I'll rename all album directories to albumartist-album (yes - albumartist could be different from artist). I use "various" as the albumartist for all compilations.

Bottom line for almost all "USB music storage" readers (cars, clock radios, etc.): once you get beyond a couple albums worth of songs, it becomes difficult to manage. You're better off using an iPod (especially since the Leaf appears to interface well) or some other "cheap" MP3 player to manage the music.

I've always organized my music in folders.. Artist->album->songs. Oddly enough, I always use "shuffle all" so I *very* rarely have a need to find anything specific.

What I did notice, much to my dismay, is that if I skip a track with the steering wheel controls while in the shuffle all mode, it skips to the next track in the folder that contains the currently playing song, not the next random song. I consider this a bug.

turbo2ltr wrote:I've always organized my music in folders.. Artist->album->songs. Oddly enough, I always use "shuffle all" so I *very* rarely have a need to find anything specific.

What I did notice, much to my dismay, is that if I skip a track with the steering wheel controls while in the shuffle all mode, it skips to the next track in the folder that contains the currently playing song, not the next random song. I consider this a bug.

Yep, I also would consider that a bug. When in shuffle mode, my Sony players create a random playlist when you start them in shuffle mode and the forward/back buttons navigate the shuffled list. So if I go back 3 songs, I once again hear the song I heard 3 songs ago. (Unless I go back past song 1, where it wraps to to the last song. I think Sony re-shuffles each time you cross the wrap-around boundry.)

My plan is to use a 32GB USB stick with over 2000 tracks, maybe as many as 5000 played in shuffle all mode. It would be nice if I could make it all the way through every track on the USB stick before it re-shuffled. I've divvyed the tracks into a bunch of subdirectories to avoid the 255 track limit

It would be nice if the LEAF worked this way. IMHO, the LEAF should re-shuffle when:1. The USB stick is inserted.2. When crossing the wrap-around boundry between the last song and track 1.3. A different shuffle or play mode is selected.

It should NOT re-shuffle when:1. The LEAF is turned on or off.2. The audio system is turned off.3. USB is re-selected after playing a different audio source, especcially the radio or satellite radio, but maybe CD also.In these situations, the LEAF should remember its current shuffle order and position in that order. It would be nice it is also remembered it's position within the track so it continued playing where it left off.

For my USB stick, I build folders that are titled with the Artist and Album name (Steely Dan - Aja). At first I tried putting all songs from one artist in one folder, but that requires a lot of advancing to get to the 3rd album, etc.

My current 16GB stick is half full and has 65 folders or albums of 256 kb mp3s. The car recognizes all the folders and songs, so I haven't hit any limits yet.

One anomaly: I use the track advance button to the right of the NAV screen (down press = advance forward) rather than the track advance button on the steering wheel. This is because if I use the one on the steering wheel, it changes the display and shows the short file names for the tracks. I like the "regular" audio display that you get when you press the CD Aux button near the NAV screen that shows Artist, Album, Song and time information, as well as the other folders you can switch to.

BTW, I plugged a portable hard drive into the USB port, and it worked. It took a few seconds saying "scanning files" or something like that. This particular hard drive I know does NOT work in my other radio without external power, but the LEAF powered it just fine without any external power.